Burrowed amongst extensive X-Games construction and L.A. Live weekend traffic, the historic South Central L.A. Tea Party held their first rally on July 24, 2011 outside the 102nd NAACP National Convention in Downtown Los Angeles to challenge the racist allegations against the Tea Party movement. During this busy Sunday afternoon, Tea Party advocates from all over Southern California came together on the lawn of the L.A. Convention Center in support of their newest members. In addition to signs that read “Give Me Liberty, Don’t Give Me Debt” and “Spread My Work Ethic, Not My Wealth,” there were signs that called the NAACP “Morally Bankrupt” and “Pro-Union, Anti-Black Citizens” which had some NAACP proponents booing and honking for the protestors to go home.

While the crowd robustly chanted “Tea Party No Retreat” and “Obama Stop Lying,” more heated NAACP supporters stood on the outer edge of the rally, contentiously spewing opposing views and yelling “the Tea Party is racist!” Still other adversaries coming from the convention peacefully gathered around to listen to the speakers and interact with the multi-racial crowd. When Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, organizer of the South Central L.A. Tea Party, took to the mic and proclaimed, “It’s not about being black, it’s not about being white, it’s about protecting America,” the 200 plus Tea Party members cheered.

Amid the array of enthusiasts was political activist Ted Hayes, Jr. who elaborated on the purpose of the South Central L.A. Tea Party gathering, “It will cause Black people to think. It gives us an option…hopefully, Jesse Peterson’s controversial step will cause Black people, even though to disagree with him, to at least consider what wrong with him, what he’s thinking about, and maybe they will find their way.” Having just come from the NAACP convention himself, The Tygrrrr Express conservative columnist, Eric Golub, said in defense of the NAACP, “It’s not a bunch of raving leftist preaching death to Republicans, it’s about medical and health issues, and the Army and Marines are in there.” A collected man promoting the decency of the NAACP added that an award ceremony for Black students who did well in school was taking place at that very moment.

The Tea Party rally was about far more than disproving the allegations of racism within its membership- which it did through the noticeable presence of multi-cultural supporters- it was about bringing to light the issues facing the Black community. Hayes made it clear that an addiction to the Federal government exists within his people that has been instilled since slavery, and that the reliance on the system will continue to affect generations to come. Abruptly cutting entitlement programs will sever the umbilical cord to millions of Americans, ultimately creating an unsustainable community. Until an alternative plan is produced by the Conservatives, the dependency cycle will continue. Golub reported there was an author at the NAACP Convention signing his book titled Black Carpenter that promoted the idea of establishing trade schools within urban cities, and encouraging young adults to study a trade. Implementation of these institutions would gradually ween the next generation off the system, transforming them into independent, working tax payers in lieu of the bleak futures that await them today.

The South Central L.A. Tea Party rally was a historic event which brought together minds from all walks of life to promote and discuss personal liberty, freedom, and the American dream.

From Wikipedia:

“As chairman of the party, Dean created and employed the ‘50 State Strategy’ that attempted to make Democrats competitive in normally conservative states often dismissed in the past as ’solid red.’ The success of the strategy became apparent after the 2006 midterm elections, where Democrats took back the House and picked up seats in the Senate from normally Republican states such as Missouri and Montana. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama used ‘The 50 state strategy’ as the backbone of his candidacy.”

As the November 2010 mid-term elections rapidly approaches it  is now even more important to focus on every race, every state, and every primary. Blogger Melissa Clouthier describes the problem in the Republican party:

“The Republicans conceding in between elections as well as races, themselves, has been a tremendous source of irritation. It is one thing to microtarget and write off a district because it’s ‘unwinnable’. The problem is that too many areas were written off that could, in this election, be won. And now, with no foundation there, it makes the task of winning more difficult. Texas isn’t the only place this has happened. In fact, this is a problem nationwide for Republicans. With a lack of organization and get out the vote effort and the lack of relationship building, many potentially winnable races will be lost simply because there is no there, there. It’s been conceded.”

Clouthier’s article includes a review of a primary race in a solidly red state of Georgia. In Georgia’s 12^th Congressional district candidate Ray McKinney is running a tight primary race against former fire chief Carl Smith, Jr. McKinney, a former supporter of Smith, has run a solid campaign while Smith has been embroiled in a number of ethical situations reminiscent of Democrat candidates. This is where the problem lies, as the Tea Party activists have become more politically savvy, every candidate must be held to a higher standard. To ensure a government that is free of corruption, the people must be willing to expose those within their own party whose actions are not aligned with our values.

According to the Savannah Business Journal:

“On June 9, Thunderbolt Town Council terminated Smith’s $52,000 a year position as Thunderbolt’s Fire Chief. The reasons behind the termination have publicly varied – officially it’s financial reasons, unofficially Smith took too much time off to campaign, and to Smith it’s all politically motivated…”

According to local reports, Smith was advised by former congressional candidate Wayne Mosley, members of the 12th District executive board, and Ray McKinney, that to avoid appearance of conflict of interest, he should resign as Fire Chief to run for Congress. Obviously Smith declined that advice and now there are allegations by concerned citizens in the district that not only was Smith an absentee fire chief but that he may have violated the Hatch Act.

Part of the 50 page watchdog report states:

” The Hatch Act of 1939 was introduced to prevent corruption in government and elections. Its main provision prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. However, it also applies to employees of state and local governments…..

Currently in Georgia’s 12th congressional district, a public official who has applied for and received federal funds in his capacity as chief of the Thunderbolt Fire Department is in violation of the Hatch Act.”

The report alleges that Smith, in his role as Fire Chief, used his office, uniform, and vehicle to campaign for public office in violation of the Hatch Act. Evidence included screen shots of Smith’s website which show him in various official uniforms on his campaign website and in fund raising letters like the ones below.

The report also includes information on the Federal funds that Smith had either applied or lobbied for in his capacity as Thunderbolt Fire Chief.

As the report points out, politicians in others states have been found in violation of the Hatch act for amounts less than shown above and in one instance, the state of Utah must either forfeit federal funds or force a state senator to resign.

Ray McKinney’s camp is taking this primary seriously and according to the Savannah Business Journal, has raised $100,000 already. McKinney, who I met at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in April, and again in DC over dinner, has been endorsed by local Tea Party groups and One Nation PAC,  has been praised by the NRA and has a plan to clean up the Gulf oil spill.

Character counts in selecting elected officials and Republicans must be willing to recognize the early signs of susceptibility to corruption within our ranks. When representatives go across the aisle on votes like Cap and Trade or Wall Street reform, voters are left wondering what happened. That’s why every race counts. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, operated under the idea that “all politics is local.” As seen in other districts like California’s 37^th Congressional district where Star Parker is running to unseat Representative Laura Richardson, a corrupt local politician can became a national problem with the outcome of one election.

If Republicans introduce their own problem candidate into the November 2010 election, they run the risk of handing that district over to a Democrat who will capitalize on Smith’s current troubles.

Smith’s ethical issues only highlight McKinney as the viable candidate and a costly run-off will distract from the main goal for putting the Democrat candidate on the defensive. If Republicans unite in GA-12, McKinney is the best choice for a sustainable conservative majority. To donate or find out more information about McKinney, go here. Every race, every state.

I was born in 1958, at the cusp of one of the biggest change in our country’s ideology– the civil rights movement.  But, six years later, desegregation had still not infiltrated all aspects of our national society and in Louisiana, it had had almost no effect at all.

As  a six year old, desegregation had little impact, until the day that Bobby Kennedy came to our house and, sitting at our kitchen table, convinced my dad to “try once more” and apply to have me attend an all-white, private school in New Orleans.  That day changed my life.

Despite the hardships, the racial slurs, the ethnic isolation, I have never regretted my dad’s decision, for it gave me  a superior education, a toughness, a confidence, despite name-calling, in my own worth as an individual, and a few good friends.

My presence elicited mixed reactions.  There was confusion —”she’s a really “light-skinned” Negro.   There was relief — “she sure doesn’t sound like a Negro.”  There was even surprise — “she sure is smart, who would have known?”

My dad assured me that these were the kinds of comments made by people who had pre-existing prejudices handed down through generations of ignorance and isolation; that these opinions would change over time.  My dad had had quite a bit of experience in this area.  And my dad was right.

Or so I thought.

Imagine my surprise, over forty years later, when serving in public office, to be attacked, to hear these same kinds of racial slurs–web pages discussing my hair and its texture, bloggers debating whether I was actually Black, or “Black enough”,  given my accent,  and comments such as ” Lurita Doan can’t be African American… She’s obviously Caucasian!” appeared fequently.

Of course, at the time of Rep. Henry Waxman’s attacks on me, there was a very contentious, presidential race, and certainly,  many on the Left had a heavy investment in the “Black” candidate, Barack Obama.  So personal attacks against a Black conservative by Waxman and other Democratic leaders were, perhaps, the inevitable, partisan attempts to discredit anyone viewed as a threat.

But are Harry Reid’s racial slurs so very different from Congressman Waxman’s efforts and show-trials where he especially singled out Black women in leadership position in the Bush Administration. going well past honest policy debates, into personal attacks and character assassinations?

Democrats have always wanted to be seen as the political party for Blacks–and any participation by a Black woman in the opposing, Republican party, was viewed as a threat.

Reading about  Senator’s Harry Reid’s derogatory comments about our President, commenting on President Obama’s voice, accent and skin color, I realized that race issues had entered a new era in America.

Black Americans that deviated, in any way, from the strict conformity of an out-of-date stereotype are singled out for derision.  If you’re “light skinned” (like me and many other African-Americans),  spoke in educated tones, or, heavens-to-Betsy, were a conservative Republican, the racist attacks came swift and sure.

Rigid orthodoxy has been coupled with blinding hypocrisy.  When Senator Trent Lot made some inappropriate remarks on race, he was hounded from office.  And yet, when Senator Harry Reid voiced narrow-minded, inappropriate racial stereotypes, the response from the very same posse, that pursued Trent Lott with pitchforks and glee, is now far more conciliatory.

The unmistakable message here is that there are two very different standards.  Democrats are free to pursue, demean and slander Black Americans (especially those that are not willing to toe the ideological line that has been dictated by party elites).  At the same time, racist notions and indiscretions from Democrat Senators like Reid are to be forgotten.

Almost fifty years after Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s triumph, celebrating the “content of our character“, rather than the “color of our skin”, it is clear that there is still room for improvement.  Let’s all encourage Senator Harry Reid to do better, refrain from making inappropriate, racial remarks and applaud his recent efforts to apologize to the President.

However,  if Reid is to truly come clean, he needs to put some effort into dismantling the hypocrisy of race-based attacks from the Democratic Party that Reid himself helped to construct.   An apology to President Obama is good first step.

But, if Reid really wants to get race issues behind him, he will now quickly follow up with a similar apology to folks like Clarence Thomas whom he was quick to demean and portray as a mental midget.  Reid’s rhetoric, five years ago,  seemed to suggest that Black Americans, such as Judge Thomas, that were unwilling to wear the Democratic straight jacket of conformity, were stupid, “embarrassing”, and unworthy of holding high positions in government.

But, Harry Reid is no Robert Kennedy.  I am afraid that anyone hoping to see some honest contrition from him and an admission of racial stereotyping is going to be disappointed.  More likely, Reid will reinforce the existing, de facto standard,  that racial comments from any Democrat are lamentable, while, at the same time, Reid and other Democrats will continue to be hyper-partisan.

Democrat leaders like Reid, Waxman, Pelosi are essentially stating that only Republicans (and especially conservatives) are guilty of racism or ever make inappropriate and demeaning remarks.  Meanwhile, Black Americans like Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, Condi Rice at the State Department , or even me while at GSA , are attacked as Uncle Toms and racial sell outs, who, because we hold contrarian ideas are not really Black at all.  This deep-seated hypocrisy is not just a double standard, it is an outrage.

More likely, as another election year approaches, Reid and his cohorts will reinforce the double-standard, and attack any Republican that even hints at race, while simultaneously condoning Democratic attempts to demean, to attack, and to disparage any Black American that escapes the Democratic straight jacket of fealty and orthodoxy.

Dr. Benjamin Carson receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Yet one of the nation’s top surgeons, with credibility and acclaim the world over for the pioneering surgeries he has and his personal story of overcoming hardship, recently ripped the dominant health care legislation before Congress in a critique similar to that of conservatives and libertarians. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md., and recipient of numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, criticized in a recent interview the approach of the current bills for their mandate, creation of a “public option,” and lack of malpractice liability reform. 

“My biggest problem is I feel it’s going in the wrong direction,” Carson told reporters at TV station WLOS in Asheville, N.C. (Video here.)“It’s giving us more government and less autonomy. And I think we should be going in exactly the opposite direction. We should be having more autonomy and less government. And that is the kind of thing that brings the prices down.” 

Considered one of the best neurosurgeons in the world, Carson gained acclaim in the ’80s and ‘90s for his pioneering operations separating conjoined twins joined at the head and other procedures that have saved children from epilepsy and brain cancer.  But Carson is also celebrated for his personal story of overcoming poverty and prejudice. An African-American, Carson grew up in a single-parent home Detroit ghetto, but his mother pushed him and his brother to achieve excellence. He is the author of the popular autobiography “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story,” which was made into a TV movie this year with Cuba Gooding Jr. portraying Carson. And he does much philanthropic work through charities such as his “Carson Scholars” fund.

Over the past few years, Carson has been writing and speaking more about public policy, including health care reform. He has railed against excessive litigation, pointing out how much malpractice insurance and other forms of “defensive medicine” to protect against lawsuits add to medical costs. In the interview with WLOS, Carson insisted that tort reform must go “hand in hand” as part of any true health care reform.

“We have to bring a rational approach to medical litigation,” he said. “We’re the only nation in the world that really has this problem. Why is it that everybody else has been able to solve this problem but us? Simple. Special interest groups like the trial lawyers’ association. They don’t want a solution.”

Carson also blasted proposals backed by Obama and most Democrats that would create a government-backed “public option,” saying it would inevitably lead to a “single payer” system like that of Canada, in which the government as the sole insurer would end up calling all the shots for patients. He pointed to how the Canadian government itself crowded out private insurance.  “What happened to the private insurance companies in Canada? Just like that, they were gone, because they couldn’t compete with it (the government). Now, why would it be any different here? That’s one of the things that disappoints me about the lack of honesty … We can’t really debate when there’s all this subterfuge.”

Carson said that despite the problems with American health care, Canada and European countries were not models to emulate in their health insurance financing systems. “All we have to do is go to other places and see what’s going on. See how long people have to wait. Very, very long waiting periods. Why do you think so many people from Canada come here when they have a problem? I know a young man in England who has a problem with his knee. He needs an operation, and the waiting list is so long. … These are the kind of things that people in this country are not used to. But more importantly, it’s something that we don’t have to get used to. We can fix this without going to that kind of system that causes those kinds of long waits.” 

As his main “fix”, Carson proposes a system of patient empowerment in which “individuals and families can own their own insurance; it doesn’t have to be through their employer.”  Not all of Carson’s ideas expressed in the interview were free-market, though. He did propose that the government set insurance rates, and cover patients’ catastrophic costs above $250,000

Above all, Carson was adamant that there transparency and deliberation, rather than a rush to force through a health care bill that no one had read. In fact, he proposed bringing health care to a national vote of the American people “I would say we should have a national referendum on it. People should be able to vote.  That would really work, because now, people would have to explain it. They would have to know what was in it. When we do these big sweeping national things and just sort of jam them through and nobody even knows what’s in it, that’s not democracy. At some point, someone has lost their ideal of what democracy is.”

Carson’s colleagues at Hopkins – ranked by U.S. News and World Report for 19 years as the nation’s best overall hospital and lauded for the millions it spends on charity care for the poor –have also voiced concerns about the direction that health care legislation is going. Citing the cuts to hospitals to pay for the goal of universal coverage – cuts of more than $150 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals, according to the Congressional Budget office “preliminary analysis” of the Max Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee bill –  the Hopkins officials have been warning about severe stress on Hopkins and other hospitals that Hopkins and other hospitals would face.

At a Sept. 18 “town meeting” on the campus of the main hospital in Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins Institutions Director of Federal Relations Beth Felder was blunt about the cuts in reimbursements. “That is going to come out of hospitals and health systems,” she said. “I think that’s not a good thing for us.” Similarly, Johns Hopkins Medicine health system CEO Edward Miller told C-Span on Sept. 16 that cuts in the reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid, “There are going to be less physicians that will care for these patients.”

(Research Assistant Jonathan Moore contributed to this article.)